Retiree buys $160,000 dream home in Spain - then discovers shocking surprise after moving in

While there may be broad humanitarian agreement with the old maxim that “sharing is caring,” the reality is that many people feel their generosity shrink and their freedom curtailed when sharing is mandatory, especially when it opens the door to wrongdoing. It is human nature.

Still, one cannot help but be surprised when accidentally caught in such a situation. Steven Najda, a 67-year-old British retiree, learned this tense lesson when he traded Yorkshire for Arcos de la Frontera, Spain.

He arrived on the outskirts of Cádiz and fell in love. Not with the sea, nor with a human gaze. Najda was captivated by the Casa del Conde del Águila, a historic building.

Luck was on his side. The property was for sale, and he was eager to buy it. A deal was struck. As love knows no obstacles, the Briton purchased half of the ground floor for $160,000 (135,000 euros).

And just as he was about to propose, metaphorically speaking, to the little palace, the madness began. He discovered that he had to share the kitchen with two other families.

The dog in the kitchen and a thousand other misfortunes

As Najda himself told the Daily Mail, he realized he had made a serious mistake when he walked into the kitchen, perhaps to make some toast, and found a dog there. Surprise. Next to the dog stood a person.

He then noticed two other doors leading out of the kitchen, each opening into a different home. It sounds like a problem with no easy solution, and the legal reality is even more entrenched.

The lawyer, seller, and notary determined that the kitchen would be transferred as part of the property once the purchase process was completed, but the other occupants, each of whom has their own kitchen in their respective homes, retain the right of access and the keys to enter. To make matters worse, no one has relinquished their usage rights.

It turns out the neighbors were hardly model residents. One tenant allegedly stole a coffee maker worth more than $1,180 from the Briton. Another, Najda said, illegally connected a pipe to his water supply and ended up diverting it. The retiree’s plants disappeared, and the irrigation system he had installed in the shared courtyard was never seen again. One headache after another.

Najda had planned to move to Spain, but he left to avoid even bigger problems. Even so, he could not escape them. He has had to spend around $23,600 on renovations related to his neighbors’ homes, from paint to new beams, all to keep the palace from collapsing.

Legally, these repairs should have been carried out by the other owners. It is the downfall of an Englishman who fell in love with an Andalusian palace, a dream that began to unravel the moment an unfamiliar dog appeared beside the bread box.

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